Venice Gang Sweeps a Sham

A community meeting was held at the Oakwood Recreation Center the evening of February 19, 2008 to discuss the gang sweeps that took place in the early morning and the previous evening.

The community was upset and complained that warrants were used with names of people not even at the addresses. The Police crashed into the homes of senior citizens - breaking down the doors, terrorizing them, and leaving them unable to secure their homes. Guns were held to their heads. Officers screamed obscenities. An LAPD dog defecated in one family’s house and a baby was almost trampled. A fourteen-year-old boy said that two guns were on his head, but he has never been in trouble before. Homeless people - not gang members - made up part of the grand total of 19 people arrested.

Oakwood is a community with generations of African-American homeowners and families. For many years they have been dealing with the criminalization of their youth, police harassment, programs such as PACE that negatively impact many seniors, and increasing amounts of more affluent neighbors who refuse to fit in with the older community.

This recent so-called gang sweep was just a low blow, according many people in the community, in an on-going attempt to remove these black people from what is now a very high priced beach community.